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High school football player suspended, kicked off team over poem

It sounds too strange to be true: A high school athlete kicked off his team and handed a suspension from school for completing an academic assignment. Incredibly that's what happened in Ohio, and the justification has everything to do with the content of what the player turned in, according to Yahoo Sports.

Photo via Yahoo Sports

The site reports Rittman High (Rittman, Ohio) junior Nick Andre was a member of the Rittman varsity football team until Friday, when he performed a controversial poem in his junior composition class. The class had been given an assignment to write a poem about something they were passionate about. Andre delivered a scathing assessment of one of his teammates, and the internal team culture that promoted that teammate into a starring role.

The poem was entitled "Stupid," and Andre later told WJW that it was meant to reflect the frustrations of Rittman's 1-7 season. It may have done that, but it focused squarely on the shortcomings of Rittman wide receiver Blake Dennis, Yahoo Sports reports.